4.3. Conservative forces. Condition of potentiality of the force field

Power acting on the material point is called conservative or potential, if the work , performed by this force when moving this point from arbitrary position 1 to another 2, does not depend on what path this movement occurred:

The change in the direction of movement of a point along the trajectory to the opposite causes a change in the sign of the conservative force, since changes sign. Therefore, when moving a material point along a closed trajectory , eg , the work of conservative power is zero.

An example of a conservative force can serve as the forces of universal aggression, the force of elasticity, the force of electrostatic interaction of charged bodies. A field whose work of forces in moving a material point along an arbitrary closed trajectory is zero is called potential.